Draft Day (2014)

Draft Day Synopsis

On the day of the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver (Costner) has the opportunity to save football in Cleveland when he trades for the number one pick. He must quickly decide what he's willing to sacrifice in pursuit of perfection as the lines between his personal and professional life become blurred on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with dreams of playing in the NFL.

Costner's played a variety of parts in his career, but he's most known for a certain conviction, one that's allowed him to play leaders, captains of industry, bosses and fathers. So while a best-of Costner retrospective would be simple, we've decided to compile a 24 hour marathon of the Costner roles where he spoke with the sort of authority that made people listen and respect him.

In an interview, Costner says a funny moment the actor liked a lot was “nixed” by the No-Fun League. It was a scene where Browns fans, furious with the decisions GM Sonny Weaver (Costner) has made, decide to hang his likeness in effigy. And the NFL… well, let’s let Costner tell it.

No fooling, cinema-goers, April is the first month of 2014 that is absolutely stocked to the gills with (hopefully) quality movies in every genre imaginable. I mean, we know some of these movies are going to stink, but the ratio of success to failure will likely be in our favor.

Once upon a time, every Super Bowl commercial was a surprise. Companies would zealously guard their secret advertisements until the big moment when they would suddenly spring forth the material for a hundred million people to watch at the same time. Over the last half decade or so, the game has changed

The one thing you’re agreeing to by making a film like Draft Day is that you’re gonna have to shell out the $4.5 million for thirty seconds (in this case, a little more) to plug the film on the biggest football day of the year.

Orignally the film was going to have an R-rating due to "brief strong language," which is a polite way of saying that the word "fuck" was used one too many times. Weirdly, now that the movie has been reclassified it has also been given a new memo line reading, “brief strong language and sexual references.” Did they miss the sexual references the first time around?

Kevin Costner returns to sports movie form as Sonny Weaver Jr., the General Manager for the constantly failing Cleveland Browns whose job is under scrutiny from team owner Harvey Molina (Frank Langella). All Sonny has to do in order to keep his job is deliver a stunning set of draft picks that will help the team get a winning record and maybe even a championship.

For Draft Day, Welling will play veteran Brian Drew, a past-his-prime quarterback whose career is in question. I’m assuming he plays for the Cleveland Browns, the team at the film’s center, though it's not 100% clear.

The more exciting new names include NFL player-turned-actor Terry Crews, who adds badassery to any film he’s in, and Josh Pence, who is probably best known for playing Tyler Winklevoss in David Fincher’s The Social Network (albeit without his own face).

In the film, Costner plays the general manager of an NFL team who must get his personal and professional life in order on the eve before the NFL Draft. Burstyn, we learn in the trade story, will play Costner’s mother who recently lost her husband – a one-time football coach – who now must make amends with her son.

He’ll play Harvey Molina, the fictional owner of the Cleveland Browns. Kevin Costner will be playing his boss, the Browns’ general manager, as the coaching staff struggles to snag the #1 pick on Draft Day.

Simons is best known as the insufferably proud White House rep Jonah Ryan on HBO’s Veep, which returns April 18. Considering he stands out against such comedy vets as Julia Louis Dreyfus, Tony Hale and Matt Walsh, it’s a good sign that he could give Draft Day another layer of laughs, even from what sounds like a fairly limited role.

Jennifer Garner is now in talks to join Draft Day, which is actually being planned as an ensemble film. As the title implies, the movie centers on the manager of an American football team who wheels, deals and struggles to try and get the number one pick.

Given the massive popularity of pro football, you'd think a Hollywood comedy revolving around an NFL team would be a no-brainer for any studio. But Draft Day, a spec script with big names like Ivan Reitman and Kevin Costner surrounding it, saw its option at Paramount run out this fall-- only to wind up landing at the top of the annual Black List

For those of you who were looking forward to Kevin Costner returning to his sports movie roots, with titles like Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Tin Cup and For the Love of the Game on his filmography, I have some bad news. New reports are saying that because of obligations on the part of both Costner and director Ivan Reitman, the upcoming football drama Draft Day may have to throw the brakes on.

Costner is circling the worldwide rights to The Explorers Guild, an illustrated adventure novel series that Costner would like to convert into multiple platforms, including an animated series and a film franchise, in which Costner would star.

Ivan Reitman is responsible for directing some of the greatest comedies of all time, from Ghostbusters to Stripes to Dave, but in recent years he has lost his touch a little. Both of his last two films, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and No Strings Attached were dreadful and its hard to come up with a lot of positive adjectives for the two that preceded those, Evolution and Six Days, Seven Nights (not to mention clunkers like Father's Day and Junior).